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<p>I surely don’t see being asked to step outside as evidence of the officer’s alleged racism. I see it as part of the officer ascertaining that the homeowner is not under duress. For the person who truly isn’t under duress - they step out and say, “Really, officer, I’m ok, but thanks for checking.” For the person who is under duress - they whisper that they need help and the officer goes from there. It’s really that simple.</p>
<p>keep talking folks. the longer you jab about this, the more you pull Obama in, the less likely he gets his health care bill passed.</p>
<p>Please explain Theresa how this was racial profiling.</p>
<p>Also, maybe Professor Gates’ daughter, who is a writer, isn’t helping the situation by speaking ill of the officer in public? I asked before and I still wonder. Isn’t there a process to sort this out? Although it seems at this point that neither gentleman can really take the higher ground without appearing to be the loser. If they were women, they’d be having brownies already.</p>
<p>Gates is an angry black man. That is why he acted outside a gray area. </p>
<p>Crowley acted within an officer’s gray area. It’s too bad but not illegal or inappropriate that such a gray area included arrest.</p>
<p>Simpleton cops abusing power should not be tolerated in this country.</p>
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<p>Me, either, especially since it appears the report was that TWO people were trying to muscle their way into the house. Surely it has occurred to folks here that the cop may have been trying to ascertain where the other person might be?</p>
<p>The theme seems to be “once the homeowner has proven he is the homeowner, the officer shouldn’t still try to ascertain anything else … the officer should just leave.”</p>
<p>Let’s pose another hypothetical (leaving race out of it). My H and I are separated; I’ve kicked him out of the house. Or maybe we’ve filed for divorce. Whatever. He comes back and slaps me around. My neighbors hear him breaking and entering, and / or they hear noises from the house that make them suspect that someone is in trouble there. They call the police; the police arrive. </p>
<p>My H warns me to stay downstairs so no one sees my bloody nose and black eyes, goes to the door and tells the officer nothing’s the matter, I just knocked something over, the TV was loud, whatever. Look, I’m the homeowner – here’s my ID. </p>
<p>Should the officer still investigate, look around the house, find me and get me ALONE so that I can signal if I need help? Or should the officer just say “Ok, I’ve ascertained that this is the homeowner, my job here is done” even though neighbors reported hearing something that could reasonably be interpreted as domestic violence?</p>
<p>The fact that cops face situations like this everyday – where they really don’t know if the noise coming from the house is an accidental fall or a too-loud TV versus someone beating the living daylights out of a spouse – or if the damaged front door is an innocent broken-door story versus a burglar who is keeping the homeowner’s children at gunpoint in the basement and has told the homeowner to shoo the cops – makes me more sympathetic to the cops. Sorry.</p>
<p>I heard on a radio station this morning that the woman who called it in was not a neighbor but a passer-by? Does anyone know if this has been confirmed?</p>
<p>And to elaborate what Pizzagirl hypothesized, what if the police officer had left after finding out he was the homeowner…and something horrible happened to Gates by an intruder?</p>
<p>The comments in the news today would be that the police didn’t care about the homeowner or resident because of his race.</p>
<p>pizza- in your scenerio I agree with you. The problem is a generation or more of African American males have been targeted and so they see things through a very different prism than you and I and the police officer. Profiling exists and at one time was even more substantial than it is now.
I work in an organization with a lot of power. I am sure I could create situation where white male business owners are treated unfairly. If it was allowed to happen for years I can assure you these white males would have a different attitude about profiling.</p>
<p>And to add to pizza’s scenario, what if the instead of being met by a cooperative (yet dishonest) husband with something to hide, the cop is met by an uncooperative and beligerent homeowner who after repeated warnings refuses to heed them. Do you really believe it is the cop’s responsibility to say, “oh sorry for upsetting you”. His responsibility is to check out the complaint and should expect cooperation in doing that. </p>
<p>So many people are unable to look at this case rationally because Gates threw the racial factor into it.</p>
<p>Obama should not have commented when he didn’t know the facts.</p>
<p>If police showed up at my door investigating a reported break-in, I’d be a little more humble, grateful and courteous.</p>
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<p>How do you know their intelligence?</p>
<p>I heard an interview with Officer Crowley. He had a very compelling defense. He was responding to a possible break in. He did not seem to have a “simpleton” attitude abusing power. He has even been supported by other officers and neighbors that he treated him with respect. He had warned him that he needed to calm down. He was given fair warning multiple times and his directions were not followed. Officer Crowley even was cognizant of his physical issues (the cane) and asked the other officer to cuff him in front and not behind the back while he got the cane. He also asked if he would like them to lock the house or to call somebody. He asked for the Harvard Custodian to do it. The key here is the home is on Harvard property, not Gates personal home. They did everything to insure that they were protecting him and themselves. </p>
<p>Would this professor really cause bodily harm to the officers, probably not. However, there are laws and Gates was breaking it. As a parent you tell your child do not speak to me that way, you give them multiple times to get it in check, after a certain time you punish them. According to Gates, and the other officers, Gates stated that the officer was trying to level the playing field because he was a a rich black man and the officer was a poor white guy (paraphrasing). Gates escalated it just as much as the oofficer, neither one are blameless.</p>
<p>Obama made a huge error, he should have responded to the reporter in a different way.
i.e. tell the reporter this press conference is about Health Care, I believe in our legal system and will allow the Cambridge community to determine who is at fault. Obama wanted water cooler talk on Thursday to be about healthcare, now his “stupidly” remark. Worse for him he now has placed racism to the fore front and healthcare in the background.</p>
<p>FWIW I did not hear that it was a passerby, I did hear 2 neighbors came outside to hear/see what the ruckus was about.</p>
<p>tom-maybe he sees things in a different way but that still doesn’t show how racism occurred in this situation. It may explain his behavior but doesn’t show that the officer was out of bounds in his initial interactions.</p>
<p>“. The problem is a generation or more of African American males have been targeted and so they see things through a very different prism than you and I and the police officer.”</p>
<p>Even worse – the problem is that black people have been targeted in this country for hundreds of years. Even in the lifetimes of many parents posting here, innocent black people – particularly males-- have had good reason to fear for their lives when approached by the police.</p>
<p>The below kind of situation – that happened this month – adds to many black people’s fears and mistrust of police. </p>
<p>"PHILADELPHIA - A group of black police officers is suing the Philadelphia Police Department over an Internet discussion board on which officers have allegedly posted hundreds of racist comments.</p>
<p>The Guardian Civic League filed the federal civil rights lawsuit Thursday.</p>
<p>The league, along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, wants the department to have the site shut down. The suit also seeks to have those behind it disciplined."</p>
<p>[Philly</a> police sued over alleged racist posts - Crime & courts- msnbc.com](<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31946836/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/]Philly”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31946836/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/)</p>
<p>So NSM, how do we protect black men from becoming victims of crime? If the police can’t show up and do their jobs aren’t we leaving black men at the mercy of criminals? Serious question.</p>
<p>The site your referenced should be shut down. I don’t get the need to make racist comments but that’s just me.</p>
<p>The police made an arrest that became a “never mind,” charges dropped, so yeah, it was a stupid waste of time and effort to arrest Gates. They should have ignored the professor’s rant and left once they knew he was the homeowner.</p>
<p>That said, I agree that Obama should have deflected the question and kept on message. He made a mistake. He underestimated the vacuity of the news media and it’s inclination to feature a trivial conflict over more complicated “issue” news and he should have had his guard up and passed on the question. </p>
<p>But let’s not make more of this than it is. It doesn’t mean he’s unfit for the office.</p>
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<p>Exactly. “The officer didn’t bother to do his job and investigate further; if he had, he would have found the intruder with the gun in the kitchen who was holding Gates hostage and who had told Gates to shoo the cops away. Guess the officers only care about doing their duty when it’s a white man whose front door appears to have been broken into.”</p>
<p>Seems like there is a disagreement whether arresting someone for being verbally combative and refusing to cooperate with an officer is justified. </p>
<p>There are citations of a 1975 precedent that loud verbal behavior does not rise to some imminence of violence standard implied in the disorderly conduct statutes.</p>
<p>There are also quotes from fellow Cambridge officers at or above Crowley’s level that he applied generally understood standards in arresting Gates.</p>
<p>I would submit that this is much like jaywalking. You can call Crowley’s actions “illegal” to be inflammatory or to highlight a desired conclusion he acted wrongfully, but if many people have been arrested for this or less for disorderly conduct, with it making national media only because Gates fanned the flames, then I would say Crowley is in the right.</p>